He Knew Me Then...

If you've visited me for any length of time, you know that amongst the somewhat trivial posts about moving or crafting, or tending to my aching joints, I sometimes feel compelled to share things of a spiritual nature here.  When that happens I do wonder if it looks like I compartmentalize the spiritual from the physical, even "worldly" aspects of life.  If you knew me in person, I think you would come to know I don't tend to compartmentalize these things.  Now worries, problems, cares of life... yeah, I can be a world-class compartmentalizer of those things for the sake of coping and moving through my responsibilities, but in terms of who and what I am, I don't tend to separate the spiritual from the physical aspects of this life.

All that is to say that today's thoughts are fairly normal in my daily existence and like I sometimes do, I've decided to invite you into those thoughts.   

A few days ago I came upon a song, He Knew Me Then, sung by Dallas Holm (in the mid-70's).  I became familiar with Dallas Holm's music when I was a young adult in the 80's, but I'd never heard this simple, beautiful song.  I was so touched by it, and my heart filled and lifted, that I decided to share it here - in case someone else could benefit from its message.  I encourage you to take four minutes and listen to it:

Being raised in the Christian faith, I'm no stranger to the message of God's love.  His love for the whole world.  For you personally, and for me personally.   But while I've been a baptized believer since I was 14, I'll admit sometimes I struggle to fully receive God's love and forgiveness.  Those times are almost always when I come face to face with my failures.  My sins.  Especially my failures and sins that affect others.

I'm not the only one.  In the second and third chapters of Genesis we read about Adam and Eve.  Before they ate the "forbidden fruit", they apparently enjoyed a happy, burden-free relationship with each other, and with God.  But after they ate fruit from the one tree they were forbidden to eat from - the tree of the knowledge of good and evil - their eyes were suddenly opened.  And in their nakedness, which prior to eating the forbidden fruit they were happily unconcerned about, they were overcome by shame.  In their shame and fear, they covered themselves and hid from God.

They were literally and figurative exposed.  They had no excuses, though they tried desperately to make their case, each in turn, for why they had done the very thing they were told not to do.  I don't know why their nakedness suddenly caused them to feel ashamed, when that wasn't an issue before their "fall", but whether you believe Genesis is a true account or not, who doesn't understand the shame these two would have felt when their sin was exposed?

It is part of the human experience that when our sin finds us out, we are ashamed.  In the case of wrong-doing, shame is a good thing.  It's where conscience is awakened and we suddenly see parts of ourselves that are downright awful.  Sometimes we want to hide and cover our wrong-doing.  When the wrong-doing is exposed, we're sometimes compelled to lie or make excuses for it.  The better part of us is usually motivated to come clean and make it right.  To make restitution.  To ask for forgiveness from someone we've wronged.  

I'll take the idea further and say that this is all a good thing.  Because from this place of wrong-doing, earned shame, and wanting to make it right... we may not only become instruments of healing the wounds we inflicted, but we also grow in compassion for others when they are in the same shoes - and we can choose to act on that compassion with understanding and forgiveness. 

Do we bear God's image more than when we have compassion and forgiveness towards others when they fail? 

There's more to all of this, of course.  Ultimate forgiveness comes through Jesus' paying the penalty for our sins through His laying down His life for us - "while we were yet sinners" according to the Apostle Paul in Romans 5:8. 

And 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John are filled with some truly encouraging words about how much God loves us, and Jesus being our advocate when we sin.  I have needed that message so often - over the past year, especially.

If these thoughts seem a ways off from the message of Holm's simple song above, they're not.  I think this is exactly what Holm's song is about.  God knew Adam and Eve would sin.  It's tempting, I know, to be indignant, thinking He set them up for their fall.  Clearly, I am not God. I don't know why the whole garden of Eden drama had to happen, but one thing that seems very clear to me is that God created Adam and Eve (and you and me) knowing we were going to fail.  Knowing when we had achieved our full faculties and became fully responsible for our actions, we were going to sin.  But He created us anyway.  In His image!   He knew us then, and loved us.  And He loves us still. 

Boggles the mind.  

And clears the heart of shame if we let it.